POCUS for everyday practice - Half-day training
Many veterinarians think ultrasound is just for finding fluid. But POCUS has evolved into so much more - now answering over 25 clinical questions across the abdomen, pleural space, lungs, heart, and vascular system. It's a practical, everyday clinical decision-making tool, and anyone can learn it - whether you work in general practice or emergency medicine.
What you will learn
This lab will focus on techniques developed by the instructors, designed to increase veterinary POCUS diagnostic accuracy and help facilitate easier application in everyday veterinary practice.
- Answer over 25 evidence-based binary clinical questions across the abdomen, pleural space, lungs, heart, and vascular system
- Hands-on practice with live dogs across all POCUS systems: abdomen, pleural space, lung, cardiovascular, and vascular access
- Practice ultrasound guided vascular access using in and out of plane techniques on phantom models
- No prior ultrasound experience required - basic machine function and probe handling and manipulation are covered from the ground up
- Designed for veterinarians in everyday practice - whether that's general practice or emergency medicine
You've all seen cases like these:
- A 10-year-old Golden Retriever with chronic cough, normal bloods, and unremarkable radiographs - is there something being missed?
- A dog presents with bite wounds over the abdomen - has the cavity been penetrated?
- A dog has occasional regurgitation 48 hours post-anaesthesia - does it have ileus?
- A small breed dog has a murmur and dyspnea - should you give furosemide?
- A cat is too unstable to radiograph - what's causing the dyspnea?
- A Great Dane collapses and you can barely hear the heart - DCM or pericardial effusion?
POCUS answers them at the bedside - without waiting, without referral, in under 5 minutes.
Add POCUS to your personal or practice toolkit and improve diagnostic confidence, patient outcomes, and client satisfaction.
Register your interest for 2027
Don't miss out! Email cave@murdoch.edu.au to go onto our Expression of Interest List for next year.
Instructors
Professors Søren Boysen and Serge Chalhoub from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary, Canada, and Dr Pamela Manning from the Sydney School of Veterinary Science, will be joined by A/Prof Claire Sharp and Dr Corrin Boyd from Murdoch’s School of Veterinary Medicine.
Søren, a criticalist, and Serge, an internist, rarely agree on anything, but their combined expertise and shared humour make for a highly engaging learning environment.
Dr Pamela Manning, Prof Serge Chalhoub, Prof Søren Boysen
Workshop information
- Half-day training with 5 POCUS experts
- Small group learning with 4 participants per instructor
- 8 hours of online lectures included (prerequisite for attending the training) through Calgary Veterinary POCUS Training Academy (included in workshop price and managed for you by CAVE)
- The workshop (including the 8 hrs of RACE approved CE upon completion of the online modules), has a total CPD value of 16 points
| Time | Event |
| 8.00am - 8.30am | Registration |
| 8:30am - 9:00am | Intro to POCUS: Hands-on, machine function, probe manipulation |
| 9:00am - 12:00pm | Practical session with live dogs: cardiac, lung, abdomen |
| 12:00pm - 12:30pm | Practical session: vascular access using chicken phantom |
| 12:30pm - 12:45pm | Wrap up and final remarks |
- Amazing! Empowering! Perfect! Awesome!
- Total game changer
- Loved the enthusiasm and encouragement
- Super engaged style of teaching
- So hands-on and full of support
- Loved the phantom chicken lab and vascular access training. Sooo cool!
- Practicing on live patients to know angle and technique of probe manipulation was my favourite part
- Favourite component: cardiac POCUS, excellent mnemonic, easy to understand, very excited to implement when back on clinics
- Having the mix of video prior to an excellent practical class was fantastic! Thank you for bringing the course to regional WA
- Online lecture access is at the rate advertised by the Calgary Training Academy at CA$300 and included in the workshop ticket; there is no mark-up by CAVE; upon registration we will supply you with an access code for the lectures.
- If you are a practice owner and are intending to send your staff to the training, we can prepare an invoice for you.
- Regional workshops: we will be reaching out to you as we need workshop participants to supply the dog volunteers needed to make these workshops happen.
- If the workshops sell out before you have had a chance to register, please reach out to us through cave@murdoch.edu.au and if there is enough interest for a further workshop, we will hold it either on Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
Sponsors
This WA POCUS Festival is proudly sponsored by:
In the event that a workshop does not have the required registrations by the week prior to the workshop, we will combine registrations to ensure all workshops are fully subscribed and reserve the right to cancel a workshop.
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